I didn’t quit trying to be straight until age forty-five. I met a woman during a visit to a mutual friend in the United States, and we fell in love almost instantly. We continued our long-distance relationship (and seventeen-hour flights) for almost a year, seeing each other only every few months. I split up with my then boyfriend, and I came out in a long e-mail to about seventy people, including my boss. The response was overwhelmingly positive. I married my love in April 2010, and we now live in the Netherlands, where gay people have the same rights that straight people do.
